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2 Kings 15:32–38 — Jotham Reigns in Judah. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

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The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

In the second year of Pekah, Azariah died, and Jotham became actual king; but his joint reign with his father commenced very much earlier. His sole reign was probably a short one.

The Pulpit Commentary resolves the chronology by distinguishing regency from sole reign; that distinction is inference from 2 Kings 15:5, not a statement of this verse.

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Keil & DelitzschBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament1860s

Jotham's sixteen years therefore came to a close in the seventeenth year of Pekah's reign

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John GillExposition of the Entire Bible1746–63

Uzziah reigned full fifty two, and then Jotham succeeded, which was the beginning of the second of Pekah.

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Albert BarnesNotes on the Bible1834

The writer here resumes the history of Judah from 2 Kings 15:7 , to resume and conclude the history of Israel in 2 Kings 17

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In the second year of the reign of Pekah son of Remaliah over Israel, Jotham son of Uzziah became king of Judah.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

šə·ta·yim biš·naṯ me·leḵ lə·p̄e·qaḥ ben- rə·mal·yā·hū yiś·rā·’êl yō·w·ṯām ben- ‘u·zî·yā·hū mā·laḵ me·leḵ yə·hū·ḏāh

Word by word13 · parsed

שְׁתַּ֔יִםšə·ta·yimIn the secondH8147

√ shᵉnayim — twoNumberfd

shᵉnayim: two A dual numeral doing ordinal duty in a construct chain. The synchronism it creates is the seam the commentators work on: Pekah's first year was Uzziah's last, so Jotham's first year is Pekah's second.

בִּשְׁנַ֣תbiš·naṯyearH8141

√ shâneh — a year (as a revolution of time)Preposition-bNounfeminine singular construct

מֶ֣לֶךְme·leḵof the reignH4428

√ melek — a kingNounmasculine singular construct

לְפֶ֥קַחlə·p̄e·qaḥof PekahH6492

√ Peqach — Pekach, an Israelite kingPreposition-lNounpropermasculine singular

Peqach: Pekah, an Israelite king A rare name (the Verifier records it in only 11 verses), and every one of those verses belongs to this single crisis: the coup of 2 Kings 15:25, the Assyrian deportation of 15:29, the alliance of 15:37 and Isaiah 7. Naming him here is not neutral bookkeeping; it sets the clock of a good Judean reign by the rise of the man who will march on Jerusalem.

בֶּן־ben-sonH1121

√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine singular construct

רְמַלְיָ֖הוּrə·mal·yā·hūof RemaliahH7425

√ Rᵉmalyâhûw — Remaljah, an IsraeliteNounpropermasculine singular

יִשְׂרָאֵ֑לyiś·rā·’êlover IsraelH3478

√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobNounpropermasculine singular

יוֹתָ֥םyō·w·ṯāmJothamH3147

√ Yôwthâm — Jotham, the name of three IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

Yôwthâm: Jotham The name Jotham stands in 24 verses by the Verifier's count, and two of those (Isaiah 1:1, Hosea 1:1) are prophetic superscriptions. The historian's regnal notice and the prophets' datelines are anchored to the same man.

בֶּן־ben-sonH1121

עֻזִיָּ֖הוּ‘u·zî·yā·hūof UzziahH5818

√ ʻUzzîyâh — Uzzijah, the name of five IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

ʻUzzîyâh: Uzzijah Benson notes the double naming, Azariah through most of the chapter and Uzziah here and at v. 34, and admits plainly that "no account can be given" for the switch beyond the man having borne two names. That is an honest gap the text does not close.

מָלַ֛ךְmā·laḵbecame kingH4427

√ mâlak — to reignVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

mâlak: to reign The unit's governing verb: it opens the account here (Qal perfect) and closes it at v. 38 of Ahaz (consecutive imperfect). Between the two the whole reign is measured.

מֶ֥לֶךְme·leḵ. . .H4428

√ melek — a kingNounmasculine singular construct

יְהוּדָֽה׃yə·hū·ḏāhof JudahH3063

√ Yᵉhûwdâh — Jehudah (or Judah), the name of five IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

Yᵉhûwdâh: Judah The last word of the verse, and the object of everything that follows: the kingdom Jotham fortifies (v. 35), the kingdom the LORD begins to send enemies against (v. 37).

Literal — word-for-word from the original

In-year-of two to-Pekah son-of-Remaliah king-of Israel, he-reigned, Jotham son-of-Uzziah, king-of Judah.

Where the English smooths the original

בִּשְׁנַ֣ת שְׁתַּ֔יִם בִּשְׁנַת (biš·naṯ, H8141 shâneh, feminine singular construct) plus שְׁתַּיִם (šə·ta·yim, H8147, a dual number form) is literally "in year of two," a construct chain, not the ordinal "second year" the English supplies. Hebrew regnal dating counts by binding one king's year to another king's name, so the very grammar makes Judah's calendar hang on Samaria's throne.
לְפֶ֥קַח לְפֶקַח (lə·p̄e·qaḥ, H6492) carries the preposition lᵉ, "belonging to / with reference to Pekah," not "of the reign of" as the smoother English has it. The year is reckoned to a usurper who had just murdered his way to the throne (2 Kings 15:25), and the writer does not soften that.
מָלַ֛ךְ מָלַךְ (mā·laḵ, H4427, Qal perfect third masculine singular) is the bare verb "he reigned / he became king." English "became king of Judah" reads as an accession event; the Hebrew perfect states the fact of rule. Gill and K&D both use this verse's date to argue that Jotham's sole reign began exactly where Uzziah's fifty-two years ended.
מֶ֥לֶךְ יְהוּדָֽה מֶלֶךְ (me·leḵ, H4428) stands twice in the verse, once for Pekah over Israel and once for Jotham over Judah. The repetition is the chapter's structural heartbeat: two crowns, one people, and a narrator who will not let either be read without the other.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Jamieson, Fausset & BrownCommentary Critical and Explanatory1871

Five and twenty years was he when he began to reign—that is, alone—for he had ruled as his father's viceroy

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Matthew PooleAnnotations upon the Holy Bible1685

When he began to reign, to wit, properly and alone; for he had reigned before this, as his father’s deputy and viceroy.

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John GillExposition of the Entire Bible1746–63

his mother's name was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok; a person well known in those times; Dr. Lightfoot (h) thinks he was high priest.

Gill reports Lightfoot's identification of Zadok as high priest; it is a seventeenth-century conjecture, offered as such, and the text supports neither its confirmation nor its denial.

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The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem - i.e. sixteen years from his appointment to be regent, as appears plainly from 2 Chronicles 26:23 and 2 Chron 27:1

This is the chronological crux of the unit, and it cuts against JFB and Poole: Pulpit counts the sixteen years from the regency, while K&D counts them as sole years ending in Pekah's seventeenth. The Hebrew infinitive of v. 33 supports neither count over the other.

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He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years. His mother’s name was Jerusha daughter of Zadok.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

hā·yāh ‘eś·rîm wə·ḥā·mêš ben- šā·nāh ḇə·mā·lə·ḵōw mā·laḵ bî·rū·šā·lim wə·šêš- ‘eś·rêh šā·nāh ’im·mōw wə·šêm yə·rū·šā baṯ- ṣā·ḏō·wq

Word by word16 · parsed

הָיָ֣הhā·yāhHe wasH1961

√ hâyâh — to exist, iVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

עֶשְׂרִ֨ים‘eś·rîmtwenty-fiveH6242

√ ʻesrîym — twentyNumbercommon plural

וְחָמֵ֤שׁwə·ḥā·mêš. . .H2568

√ châmêsh — fiveConjunctive wawNumberfeminine singular

בֶּן־ben-years oldH1121

bên: a son, in the widest sense The word the brief's lexicon calls "a son (as a builder of the family name)." Its idiomatic use for age here, and its literal use in v. 38 for Ahaz, frame the whole unit: a man is a son of his years and a son of his father, and the second sonship is what undoes Judah.

שָׁנָה֙šā·nāh. . .H8141

√ shâneh — a year (as a revolution of time)Nounfeminine singular

בְמָלְכ֔וֹḇə·mā·lə·ḵōwwhen he became kingH4427

√ mâlak — to reignPreposition-bVerbQalInfinitive constructthird person masculine singular

mâlak: to reign (infinitive construct) The infinitive with b dates the accession. JFB restricts it to sole rule ("that is, alone") and Poole to reigning "properly and alone"; both are reading this verse against 2 Kings 15:5, where Uzziah's leprosy put his son over the house. The Hebrew itself does not distinguish regency from reign; the harmonization is the commentators', not the text's.

מָלַ֖ךְmā·laḵand he reignedH4427

√ mâlak — to reignVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

בִּירוּשָׁלִָ֑םbî·rū·šā·limin JerusalemH3389

√ Yᵉrûwshâlaim — Jerushalaim or Jerushalem, the capital city of PalestinePreposition-bNounproperfeminine singular

וְשֵׁשׁ־wə·šêš-sixteenH8337

√ shêsh — six (as an overplus beyond five or the fingers of the hand)Conjunctive wawNumberfeminine singular

עֶשְׂרֵ֣ה‘eś·rêh. . .H6240

√ ʻâsâr — ten (only in combination), iNumberfeminine singular

שָׁנָ֔הšā·nāhyearsH8141

√ shâneh — a year (as a revolution of time)Nounfeminine singular

אִמּ֔וֹ’im·mōwHis mother’sH517

√ ʼêm — a mother (as the bond of the family)Nounfeminine singular constructthird person masculine singular

ʼêm: a mother, the bond of the family Kings records the queen mother for Judah's kings almost without exception. It is a dynastic, not a sentimental, notice: the mother's house is part of the crown's alliance record.

וְשֵׁ֣םwə·šêmnameH8034

√ shêm — an appellation, as amark or memorial of individualityConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular construct

יְרוּשָׁ֖אyə·rū·šāwas JerushaH3388

√ Yᵉrûwshâʼ — Jerusha or Jerushah, as IsraelitessNounproperfeminine singular

Yᵉrûwshâʼ: Jerusha The rarest word in the unit. The Verifier finds it in only two verses of the whole canon, this one and 2 Chronicles 27:1. A name that occurs twice and nowhere else is what makes the parallel record demonstrably a record of the same woman.

בַּת־baṯ-daughterH1323

√ bath — a daughter (used in the same wide sense as other terms of relationship, literally and figuratively)Nounfeminine singular construct

צָדֽוֹק׃ṣā·ḏō·wqof ZadokH6659

√ Tsâdôwq — Tsadok, the name of eight or nine IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

Tsâdôwq: Tsadok Gill passes on Lightfoot's suggestion that this Zadok was high priest. That is a conjecture, not a claim of the text: the verse says only "daughter of Zadok," and the name belongs, by the brief's own lexicon, to eight or nine Israelites.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

A-son-of twenty and-five year was-he in-his-reigning, and-six and-ten year he-reigned in-Jerusalem; and-name-of his-mother: Jerusha daughter-of Zadok.

Where the English smooths the original

בֶּן־ בֶּן־ (ben, H1121) here is not "son" in the English sense of the line but the idiom of age: "a son of twenty and five year." Hebrew reckons a lifespan as sonship to a number of years. The same three letters in v. 32 and v. 37 mean literal descent, and at v. 38 the succession itself turns on a bēn.
בְמָלְכ֔וֹ בְמָלְכוֹ (ḇə·mā·lə·ḵōw, H4427, preposition b plus Qal infinitive construct with third masculine singular suffix) is "in his reigning," a temporal infinitive, not the punctiliar English "when he became king." JFB and Poole both argue that the smoothed English hides a real problem: he had already ruled as viceroy, so the infinitive marks when his own reign is counted, not when he first held power.
וְשֵׁשׁ־עֶשְׂרֵ֣ה שָׁנָ֔ה וְשֵׁשׁ־עֶשְׂרֵה שָׁנָה (wə·šêš-‘eś·rêh šā·nāh, H8337 plus H6240 plus H8141) keeps shânâh singular, "six and ten year," the standard Hebrew counting idiom. English must pluralize; the original counts a single unit sixteen times over.
וְשֵׁ֣ם אִמּ֔וֹ וְשֵׁם (wə·šêm, H8034, "an appellation, as a mark or memorial of individuality") with אִמּוֹ (’im·mōw, H517, "a mother, as the bond of the family") is the queen mother formula of Kings. The English "His mother's name was" is accurate but flat; the Hebrew lexicon's own sense of shêm as a memorial of individuality is why this clause exists at all, to fix a woman in the record of a dynasty.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Geneva Study BibleMarginal Notes1599

He shows that his uprightness was not such, but that he had many great faults.

Geneva reads the comparison to Uzziah as a limitation rather than a compliment. It is a Reformed gloss pressing against the plainer reading of Gill and Josephus, and the two together mark the real interpretive range of the verse.

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Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

The Chronicler notes the great exception ‘Howbeit he entered not into the temple of the Lord’. As this sin of Uzziah had not been recorded by the compiler of Kings, it is natural that he should not allude to it in the notice of Jotham.

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John GillExposition of the Entire Bible1746–63

in all the kings of Judah before him, even in the best, some sins were found; but in Jotham there was nothing scandalous and reproachful

Gill is relaying Jarchi (Rashi) citing an earlier Jewish writer; the judgment is rabbinic tradition, not the verdict of the verse.

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Albert BarnesNotes on the Bible1834

Jotham imitated his father in all respects, excepting in his impious usurpation of the priestly functions

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And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father Uzziah had done.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·ya·‘aś hay·yā·šār bə·‘ê·nê Yah·weh kə·ḵōl ’ă·šer- ’ā·ḇîw ‘ā·śāh ‘u·zî·yā·hū ‘ā·śāh

Word by word10 · parsed

וַיַּ֥עַשׂway·ya·‘aśAnd he didH6213

√ ʻâsâh — to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest applicationConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

ʻâsâh: to do or make, in the broadest sense The consecutive imperfect opens the evaluation formula of Kings. Everything the book judges, it judges as doing: not intention, not confession, but what a king enacted.

הַיָּשָׁ֖רhay·yā·šār[what was] rightH3477

√ yâshâr — straight (literally or figuratively)ArticleAdjectivemasculine singular

yâshâr: straight, literally or figuratively The covenant verdict word. Its root sense is physical straightness, so the judgment is measured against a line, not a mood. Kings uses the same adjective of Uzziah at 15:3, which is exactly why v. 34 can say "according to the whole of which his father did" and why the Chronicler felt the need to carve out the one place where that line was crossed.

בְּעֵינֵ֣יbə·‘ê·nêin the eyesH5869

√ ʻayin — an eye (literally or figuratively)Preposition-bNouncdc

יְהוָ֑הYah·wehof the LORDH3068

√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular

Yᵉhôvâh: the national name of God The only occurrence of the divine name in the unit outside v. 35 (the house of YHWH) and v. 37 (YHWH begins to send). Those three are the unit's whole theology: God assesses, God is worshipped at a house with an upper gate, and God is the one who sends Rezin and Pekah.

כְּכֹ֧לkə·ḵōljust asH3605

√ kôl — properly, the wholePreposition-kNounmasculine singular

kôl: properly, the whole A totalizing comparison that the later canon had to qualify. Ellicott: "The chronicler qualifies this general statement." The qualification is real and named; the Kings writer, as Cambridge observes, never recorded Uzziah's trespass, so he had no reason to except it here.

אֲשֶׁר־’ă·šer-H834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

אָבִ֖יו’ā·ḇîwhis fatherH1

√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular

ʼâb: father The measuring rod of the verse, and the word that returns twice in v. 38 ("slept with his fathers," "the city of David his father"). A Judean king is graded against his line.

עָשָֽׂה׃‘ā·śāh. . .H6213

√ ʻâsâh — to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest applicationVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

עֻזִיָּ֥הוּ‘u·zî·yā·hūUzziahH5818

√ ʻUzzîyâh — Uzzijah, the name of five IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

עָשָׂ֛ה‘ā·śāhhad doneH6213

√ ʻâsâh — to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest applicationVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

ʻâsâh: to do or make The third strike of the same verb. Gill limits it honestly ("according to what was well done by him"), and Geneva refuses the flattery altogether, insisting the comparison itself shows "he had many great faults."

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-he-did the-right in-eyes-of YHWH; according-to-all that his-father did, Uzziah, he-did.

Where the English smooths the original

הַיָּשָׁ֖ר הַיָּשָׁר (hay·yā·šār, H3477 yâshâr, article plus masculine singular adjective) is "the straight," the definite thing that is level or upright, treated as a noun. English "what was right" turns a concrete image (straightness) into an abstraction (rightness). The definite article matters: not merely something right, but the straight, a fixed standard already known.
בְּעֵינֵ֣י יְהוָ֑ה בְּעֵינֵי (bə·‘ê·nê, H5869 ʻayin, construct dual) is literally "in the two eyes of" YHWH. The English "in the eyes of the LORD" keeps the idiom, but the point is easy to lose: the standard is not public reputation or Josephus's high character reference but the assessment of one Observer.
כְּכֹ֧ל אֲשֶׁר־ כְּכֹל (kə·ḵōl, H3605 kôl, "properly, the whole," with the comparative k) is "according to the whole of which," a totalizing comparison, not the English's mild "just as." It is precisely this totality that Geneva and Cambridge both qualify: the Chronicler had to add an exception ("Howbeit he entered not into the temple") because the Hebrew comparison, taken whole, would sweep Uzziah's trespass in with his virtues.
עָשָׂ֛ה עָשָׂה (‘ā·śāh, H6213) stands three times in this one short verse (indices 0, 7, 9), twice in the Qal perfect for Uzziah and once in the consecutive imperfect for Jotham. English collapses the repetition into "did ... had done"; the Hebrew hammers one verb until the son's doing and the father's doing are audibly the same act.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Matthew HenryConcise Commentary on the Whole Bible1706

If magistrates cannot do all they would, for the suppressing of vice and profaneness, let them do the more to support and advance piety and virtue.

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Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

By ‘build’ is only meant ‘restore’ or ‘beautify’. The gate existed before.

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Albert BarnesNotes on the Bible1834

The "higher" or "upper gate" of the temple is thought to have been that toward the north; and its fortification would seem to indicate fear of an attack from that quarter.

Barnes reads a defensive motive into the building. That is inference from the geography and from v. 37, not from anything the verse says about Jotham's intent.

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John GillExposition of the Entire Bible1746–63

the people sacrificed and burnt incense still in the high places; from which they could not be brought off by prophets or kings

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Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away; the people continued sacrificing and burning incense there. Jotham rebuilt the Upper Gate of the house of the LORD.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

raq hab·bā·mō·wṯ lō sā·rū hā·‘ām ‘ō·wḏ mə·zab·bə·ḥîm ū·mə·qaṭ·ṭə·rîm bab·bā·mō·wṯ hū bā·nāh ’eṯ- hā·‘el·yō·wn ša·‘ar bêṯ- Yah·weh

Word by word16 · parsed

רַ֤קraqNeverthelessH7535

√ raq — properly, leanness, iAdverb

raq: properly, leanness; only, except The hinge of the whole reign. Kings uses this particle to register that a good king's record has a permanent dent in it, and here the dent is the one thing no Judean king before Hezekiah removed.

הַבָּמוֹת֙hab·bā·mō·wṯthe high placesH1116

√ bâmâh — an elevationArticleNounfeminine plural

bâmâh: an elevation The high places: local shrines that were not necessarily pagan but were not the one house. The lexicon's bare gloss, "an elevation," is worth holding onto, because the last word of this same verse (ʻelyôn, H5945) carries exactly the same gloss. The verse's two elevations are its argument.

לֹ֣אlōwere notH3808

√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle

סָ֔רוּsā·rūtaken awayH5493

√ çûwr — to turn off (literal or figurative)VerbQalPerfectthird person common plural

çûwr: to turn off, literal or figurative Qal perfect third common plural, with the high places as subject. The grammar is not passive. Kings could have written a Hiphil with the king as agent (he did not remove them); instead the shrines themselves simply do not turn aside, which is a heavier verdict on the people than on Jotham.

הָעָ֛םhā·‘āmthe peopleH5971

√ ʻam — a people (as a congregated unit)ArticleNounmasculine singular

ע֗וֹד‘ō·wḏcontinuedH5750

√ ʻôwd — properly, iteration or continuanceAdverb

ʻôwd: iteration or continuance One small adverb carrying the entire duration of the failure.

מְזַבְּחִ֥יםmə·zab·bə·ḥîmsacrificingH2076

√ zâbach — to slaughter an animal (usually in sacrifice)VerbPielParticiplemasculine plural

zâbach: to slaughter an animal, usually in sacrifice Piel participle, durative. The people are not accused of worshipping another god here; they are sacrificing, presumably to YHWH, in the wrong place. That is precisely what makes the high places so persistent: sincere worship at an unauthorized altar is the hardest thing to abolish. Gill notes they could not be broken of it "by prophets or kings."

וּֽמְקַטְּרִ֖יםū·mə·qaṭ·ṭə·rîmand burning incenseH6999

√ qâṭar — to smoke, iConjunctive wawVerbPielParticiplemasculine plural

qâṭar: to smoke, to burn incense The paired Piel participle. Incense and slaughter together make the high places a full cultic system, not a scattering of private devotions, which is why removing them required more than a building project.

בַּבָּמ֑וֹתbab·bā·mō·wṯ[there]H1116

√ bâmâh — an elevationPreposition-b, ArticleNounfeminine plural

ה֗וּאhūJothamH1931

√ hûwʼ — he (she or it)Pronounthird person masculine singular

hûwʼ: he An emphatic independent pronoun the English drops. Ellicott and K&D both restore its force: he, and no one else, was the builder.

בָּנָ֛הbā·nāhrebuiltH1129

√ bânâh — to build (literally and figuratively)VerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

bânâh: to build, literally and figuratively Cambridge is careful here: "By ‘build’ is only meant ‘restore’ or ‘beautify’. The gate existed before." K&D agrees, allowing either restoration or adornment. The verb is broad enough for both, and the unit's only positive act by a king is therefore, honestly stated, a renovation.

אֶת־’eṯ-H853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker

הָעֶלְיֽוֹן׃hā·‘el·yō·wnthe UpperH5945

√ ʻelyôwn — an elevation, iArticleAdjectivemasculine singular

ʻelyôwn: an elevation The upper or higher gate. Its identification is contested in the sources: Barnes and Cambridge argue for the north side, with Barnes reading its fortification as evidence of fear of attack from that quarter (which, given v. 37, is a live possibility); JFB and Poole say it is not the temple proper but a court gate, probably the one leading to the palace (2 Chronicles 23:20); Ellicott reports Thenius taking "higher" as rank rather than position. The text itself settles none of this.

שַׁ֥עַרša·‘arGateH8179

√ shaʻar — an opening, iNounmasculine singular construct

בֵּית־bêṯ-of the houseH1004

√ bayith — a house (in the greatest variation of applications, especially family, etcNounmasculine singular construct

bayith: a house The house of YHWH, named for the only time in the unit. The one elevation Jotham could touch was the gate of this house.

יְהוָ֖הYah·wehof the LORDH3068

√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

Only, the-high-places not they-turned-aside: still the-people sacrificing and-burning-incense in-the-high-places. He, he-built the-gate-of house-of-YHWH, the-upper.

Where the English smooths the original

רַ֤ק רַק (raq, H7535) is a restrictive adverb whose root sense, per the brief's lexicon, is "properly, leanness." English "Nevertheless" makes it a polite concession; the Hebrew particle thins the preceding praise. Everything v. 34 granted is now measured against one standing exception.
לֹ֣א סָ֔רוּ סָרוּ (sā·rū, H5493 çûwr, "to turn off," Qal perfect third common plural) is active: the high places "did not turn aside." The English passive "were not taken away" quietly supplies an agent who failed to act. The Hebrew instead leaves the shrines standing as the subject of their own stubborn persistence, and assigns no blame in the clause itself.
מְזַבְּחִ֥ים וּֽמְקַטְּרִ֖ים מְזַבְּחִים (mə·zab·bə·ḥîm, H2076) and וּמְקַטְּרִים (ū·mə·qaṭ·ṭə·rîm, H6999) are both Piel participles, masculine plural: not "continued sacrificing" as a past habit but an unbroken ongoing action, held open by עוֹד (‘ōwḏ, H5750, "iteration or continuance"). Note also that hā‘ām, "the people," is grammatically singular while the participles are plural: one people, many hands at the altars.
ה֗וּא בָּנָ֛ה הוּא (hū, H1931) is the independent pronoun "he," fronted before בָּנָה (bā·nāh, H1129). The interlinear glosses it simply "Jotham," and BSB drops it; but the fronted pronoun is emphatic. Ellicott insists: "Rather, He it was who built." Over against a people who would not stop, one man did one thing.
הָעֶלְיֽוֹן הָעֶלְיוֹן (hā·‘el·yō·wn, H5945) and הַבָּמוֹת (hab·bā·mō·wṯ, H1116) are given the same base gloss in the brief's lexicon: "an elevation." The verse therefore sets one elevation that would not come down against another elevation that was built up. Whether the adjective means physical height or rank is disputed: Ellicott reports that Thenius took it as rank, while Barnes, Cambridge, and K&D all place it on the north side.

As for the rest of the acts of Jotham, along with his accomplishments, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wə·ye·ṯer diḇ·rê yō·w·ṯām ’ă·šer ‘ā·śāh hêm hă·lō- kə·ṯū·ḇîm ‘al- sê·p̄er diḇ·rê hay·yā·mîm lə·mal·ḵê yə·hū·ḏāh

Word by word14 · parsed

וְיֶ֛תֶרwə·ye·ṯerAs for the restH3499

√ yether — properly, an overhanging, iConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular construct

yether: properly, an overhanging The formula word of Kings. It concedes, every time it appears, that the book in hand is a selection made for a purpose, and that the fuller record lay elsewhere. Ellicott, Cambridge, and Pulpit all fill the gap from 2 Chronicles 27: the fortified cities of the hill country, the castles and towers in the forests, the wall of Ophel, and the three years of Ammonite tribute.

דִּבְרֵ֥יdiḇ·rêof the actsH1697

√ dâbâr — a wordNounmasculine plural construct

dâbâr: a word The same noun names both the deeds and the annal that records them, nine words apart in a single verse. Hebrew keeps no separate vocabulary for an act and its account: a king's dᵉbārîm are what he said, what he did, and what was written of him, all at once. That is why the formula can hand the reader off to a scroll for a man's life without any sense of category shift, and why BSB must translate the one word twice, as "acts" and as "Chronicles."

יוֹתָ֖םyō·w·ṯāmof JothamH3147

√ Yôwthâm — Jotham, the name of three IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

אֲשֶׁ֣ר’ă·šeralong with his accomplishmentsH834

√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative

עָשָׂ֑ה‘ā·śāh. . .H6213

√ ʻâsâh — to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest applicationVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular

הֵ֣םhêmare theyH1992

√ hêm — they (only used when emphatic)Pronounthird person masculine plural

הֲלֹא־hă·lō-notH3808

√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle

כְּתוּבִ֗יםkə·ṯū·ḇîmwrittenH3789

√ kâthab — to grave, by implication, to write (describe, inscribe, prescribe, subscribe)VerbQalQalPassParticiplemasculine plural

kâthab: to grave, to write, inscribe The passive participle leaves the writers unnamed. Kings never claims to be the archive; it claims to be reading one.

עַל־‘al-inH5921

√ ʻal — above, over, upon, or against (yet always in this last relation with a downward aspect) in a great variety of applicationsPreposition

סֵ֛פֶרsê·p̄erthe BookH5612

√ çêpher — properly, writing (the art or a document)Nounmasculine singular construct

çêpher: properly, writing, a document The lost royal annal of Judah, cited here and repeatedly through Kings, and nowhere extant. This is one of the plainest honesty markers in Scripture's own historiography: the inspired book names a source the reader cannot check.

דִּבְרֵ֥יdiḇ·rêof the ChroniclesH1697

√ dâbâr — a wordNounmasculine plural construct

הַיָּמִ֖יםhay·yā·mîm. . .H3117

√ yôwm — a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb)ArticleNounmasculine plural

yôwm: a day "The days": the chronicle idiom. The plural noun with the article gives the annal its name.

לְמַלְכֵ֥יlə·mal·ḵêof the KingsH4428

√ melek — a kingPreposition-lNounmasculine plural construct

יְהוּדָֽה׃yə·hū·ḏāhof JudahH3063

√ Yᵉhûwdâh — Jehudah (or Judah), the name of five IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-remainder-of words-of Jotham, and-all that he-did: are-they not written upon scroll-of words-of the-days for-kings-of Judah?

Where the English smooths the original

וְיֶ֛תֶר וְיֶתֶר (wə·ye·ṯer, H3499 yether) is glossed in the brief's lexicon as "properly, an overhanging," that is, what is left over the edge. The English "the rest of" is flat; the Hebrew pictures a surplus that spills past the frame of this book. Kings is openly an abridgement, and says so.
דִּבְרֵ֥י דִּבְרֵי (diḇ·rê, H1697 dâbâr, "a word," masculine plural construct) occurs twice in this verse, at index 1 and index 10. BSB renders the first "acts" and the second "Chronicles." Both are the same word: words. Hebrew does not separate a deed from its telling, and the pun is lost entirely in English: the words of Jotham are recorded in the words of the days.
הֲלֹא־כְּתוּבִ֗ים כְּתוּבִים (kə·ṯū·ḇîm, H3789 kâthab, Qal passive participle masculine plural) with the interrogative negative הֲלֹא is a rhetorical challenge: "are they not written?" The participle is a state, not an event. The record stands written; the reader is referred outward to it.
סֵ֛פֶר דִּבְרֵ֥י הַיָּמִ֖ים סֵפֶר (sê·p̄er, H5612, "properly, writing, the art or a document") plus "words of the days" is literally a scroll of the words of the days. English "Book of the Chronicles" makes it sound like the canonical books of Chronicles; it is not. Gill is careful to distinguish them: some of Jotham's other acts "are recorded in the canonical book of Chronicles," a different work from this lost royal annal.

The Voices✦ 4 public domain

Joseph BensonCommentary on the Old and New Testaments1810s

Wicked men are the sword, the rod in God’s hand, which he makes use of as he pleases, to serve his own righteous counsels, though they be unrighteous in their intentions.

source ↗

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges—1880s

Though He began to send enemies upon Judah, yet the Lord did not, as Isaiah’s prophecy shews us, leave His people without hope, but in the midst of their chastisement He was thinking upon mercy, and spake by the mouth of the prophet concerning that greatest mercy, the sending of His Son.

Cambridge is reading forward to Isaiah 7 and the Immanuel oracle. The link is interpretive, made by a nineteenth-century editor, though the connection of Rezin and Pekah to Isaiah 7:1 is stated in Isaiah's own text.

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Geneva Study BibleMarginal Notes1599

Who in one day slew 120,000 of Judah's fighting men 2Ch 28:6, because they had forsaken the true God.

Geneva's figure comes from 2 Chronicles 28:6 and belongs to the reign of Ahaz, not Jotham. The note is accurate to its source but is a forward reference, not a comment on what happened in these days.

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Keil & DelitzschBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament1860s

But as 2 Kings 16:6 . and 2 Kings 17 show, it was otherwise decreed in the counsels of the Lord.

source ↗

(In those days the LORD began to send Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah against Judah.)

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

hā·hêm bay·yā·mîm Yah·weh hê·ḥêl lə·haš·lî·aḥ rə·ṣîn me·leḵ ’ă·rām wə·’êṯ pe·qaḥ ben- rə·mal·yā·hū bî·hū·ḏāh

Word by word13 · parsed

הָהֵ֔םhā·hêmIn thoseH1992

√ hêm — they (only used when emphatic)ArticlePronounthird person masculine plural

hêm: they, those (only used when emphatic) "In those days." The commentators disagree sharply about which days: Poole and Benson place them toward the end of Jotham's reign; K&D reads the verse's position at the close of the account as evidence the raids began in his closing years; Gill argues nothing actually came to pass until after his death, only design and preparation. The Hebrew phrase decides none of it.

בַּיָּמִ֣יםbay·yā·mîmdaysH3117

יְהוָ֗הYah·wehthe LORDH3068

√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular

Yᵉhôvâh: the national name of God The subject of the verse's only finite verb. This is the unit's theological center of gravity: Judah's coming affliction is not an accident of Near Eastern power politics but a sending.

הֵחֵ֣לhê·ḥêlbeganH2490

√ châlal — properly, to bore, iVerbHifilPerfectthird person masculine singular

châlal: properly, to bore (Hifil) The Hiphil is the ordinary verb for beginning, but its root sense of boring or piercing gives the clause its shape: something is opened here that will not be closed in this book. Benson catches the same logic in a different image, comparing it to God bidding Shimei curse David, and adding that wicked men are "the sword, the rod in God's hand."

לְהַשְׁלִ֙יחַ֙lə·haš·lî·aḥto sendH7971

√ shâlach — to send away, for, or out (in a great variety of applications)Preposition-lVerbHifilInfinitive construct

shâlach: to send away, for, or out The verb of commissioning prophets is here the verb of commissioning invaders. Hebrew does not flinch at that, and neither should a reader: the same God who sends the word sends the rod.

רְצִ֖יןrə·ṣînRezinH7526

√ Rᵉtsîyn — Retsin, the name of a Syrian and of an IsraeliteNounpropermasculine singular

Rᵉtsîyn: Rezin A rare name (11 verses). Ellicott compares it to Rezon of 1 Kings 11:23, the founder of the Damascene dynasty, and notes that the Assyrian spelling in Tiglath Pileser's records suggests the true form was Raçôn, so that the first and last kings of Syria bore similar names, both perhaps meaning "prince." That reconstruction is Ellicott's, resting on nineteenth-century Assyriology.

מֶ֣לֶךְme·leḵkingH4428

√ melek — a kingNounmasculine singular construct

אֲרָ֑ם’ă·rāmof AramH758

√ ʼĂrâm — Aram or Syria, and its inhabitantsNounproperfeminine singular

וְאֵ֖תwə·’êṯH853

√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Conjunctive wawDirect object marker

פֶּ֥קַחpe·qaḥand PekahH6492

√ Peqach — Pekach, an Israelite kingNounpropermasculine singular

Peqach: Pekah Pekah's name opened the unit at v. 32 as a date and closes it here as a weapon. The same man who marks Judah's calendar now marches in it.

בֶּן־ben-sonH1121

רְמַלְיָֽהוּ׃rə·mal·yā·hūof RemaliahH7425

√ Rᵉmalyâhûw — Remaljah, an IsraeliteNounpropermasculine singular

בִּֽיהוּדָ֔הbî·hū·ḏāhagainst JudahH3063

√ Yᵉhûwdâh — Jehudah (or Judah), the name of five IsraelitesPreposition-bNounpropermasculine singular

Yᵉhûwdâh: Judah The last word of the sentence and the object of the sending. Judah, whose king had just done the straight thing, is the target.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

In-the-days those, YHWH began to-send-against Judah Rezin king-of Aram, and Pekah son-of-Remaliah.

Where the English smooths the original

הֵחֵ֣ל הֵחֵל (hê·ḥêl, H2490 châlal, Hifil perfect third masculine singular) means "he began," but the brief's lexicon gives the root's proper sense as "to bore," to pierce or open. The Hiphil is a causative of that opening. The English "began to send" is correct and colorless; the Hebrew verb is the opening of a breach, and the one who opens it is named first in the clause.
יְהוָ֗ה יְהוָה (H3068) is the grammatical subject of the sending. BSB keeps this, but the theological weight is easy to skim past: the aggressors are not said to rise, march, or conspire. They are sent, and the Sender is the same LORD in whose eyes Jotham did the straight thing three verses earlier.
לְהַשְׁלִ֙יחַ֙ לְהַשְׁלִיחַ (lə·haš·lî·aḥ, H7971 shâlach, Hifil infinitive construct) is "to cause to send / to send off." Both verbs in the clause are Hiphil causatives stacked one on the other, which is why English needs two auxiliaries ("began to send") to carry what Hebrew says with two verb forms. The causality is doubled, and it runs from God downward.
בִּֽיהוּדָ֔ה בִּיהוּדָה (bî·hū·ḏāh, H3063 with preposition b) is literally "in Judah," not "against Judah." The preposition of location is doing hostile work here; Poole and Pulpit both read the early phase as raids inside the territory rather than a declared war, which fits the preposition better than the English does.

The Voices✦ 3 public domain

Joseph BensonCommentary on the Old and New Testaments1810s

He died in the midst of his days, being only forty-one years of age. He was too great a blessing to be continued long to such an unworthy people.

Benson's reading of the early death as a judgment on the people is inference, not statement; the age of forty-one is arithmetic from v. 33.

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The Pulpit CommentarySpence & Exell, eds.1880s

It may be suspected that the full name of this king was Jeho-ahaz. Ahaz, "possession," is a name never assigned to any other Israelite, and it is one not likely to have been given by a religious father like Jotham.

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John GillExposition of the Entire Bible1746–63

Died, and was buried with the kings of Judah in their sepulchres: and Ahaz his son reigned in his stead; an account of whose reign we have in the next chapter.

source ↗

And Jotham rested with his fathers and was buried with them in the City of David his father. And his son Ahaz reigned in his place.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

yō·w·ṯām way·yiš·kaḇ ‘im- ’ă·ḇō·ṯāw way·yiq·qā·ḇêr ‘im- ’ă·ḇō·ṯāw bə·‘îr dā·wiḏ ’ā·ḇîw bə·nōw ’ā·ḥāz way·yim·lōḵ taḥ·tāw

Word by word14 · parsed

יוֹתָם֙yō·w·ṯāmAnd JothamH3147

√ Yôwthâm — Jotham, the name of three IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular

וַיִּשְׁכַּ֤בway·yiš·kaḇrestedH7901

√ shâkab — to lie down (for rest, sexual connection, decease or any other purpose)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

shâkab: to lie down The standard formula for a king who died in peace and in his bed. Benson presses the point that Jotham died "in the midst of his days," at about forty-one on the numbers of v. 33 (twenty-five plus sixteen), and reads the early death as judgment on the people rather than on the king. The arithmetic is the text's; the theological verdict is Benson's.

עִם־‘im-withH5973

√ ʻim — adverb or preposition, with (iPreposition

אֲבֹתָ֔יו’ă·ḇō·ṯāwhis fathersH1

√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationNounmasculine plural constructthird person masculine singular

ʼâb: father The third and fourth uses of ʼâb in this unit (after v. 34 and v. 38's "David his father"). Jotham is defined start to finish by fathers: he did as his father did, he lay with his fathers, he was buried in the city of his father David.

וַיִּקָּבֵר֙way·yiq·qā·ḇêrand was buriedH6912

√ qâbar — to interConjunctive wawVerbNifalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

qâbar: to inter (Nifal) The passive stem. Kings withholds this honor from kings it condemns; that Jotham receives the full formula, city of David and all, is itself the book's verdict on him.

עִם־‘im-withH5973

√ ʻim — adverb or preposition, with (iPreposition

אֲבֹתָ֔יו’ă·ḇō·ṯāw[them]H1

√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationNounmasculine plural constructthird person masculine singular

בְּעִ֖ירbə·‘îrin the CityH5892

√ ʻîyr — a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the widest sense (even of a mere encampment or post)Preposition-bNounfeminine singular construct

דָּוִ֣דdā·wiḏof DavidH1732

√ Dâvid — David, the youngest son of JesseNounpropermasculine singular

Dâvid: David, the youngest son of Jesse The only appearance of David's name in the unit, and it comes at the burial. The covenant with David is never argued here; it is simply the ground Jotham is laid in.

אָבִ֑יו’ā·ḇîwhis fatherH1

√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular

בְּנ֖וֹbə·nōwAnd his sonH1121

bên: a son The same noun that measured Jotham's age in v. 33 now carries the succession, and carries it to the worst possible heir. Everything the unit praised is handed to Ahaz in four Hebrew words.

אָחָ֥ז’ā·ḥāzAhazH271

√ ʼÂchâz — Achaz, the name of a Jewish king and of an IsraeliteNounpropermasculine singular

ʼÂchâz: Achaz Pulpit suspects the king's full name was Jeho-ahaz, noting that Ahaz alone is assigned to no other Israelite and that the Assyrian inscriptions call the contemporary of Rezin and Pekah "Yahu-khazi." That is a reasoned conjecture from Assyriology, not a reading of the Hebrew, which has only ’Āḥāz.

וַיִּמְלֹ֛ךְway·yim·lōḵreignedH4427

√ mâlak — to reignConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular

תַּחְתָּֽיו׃פtaḥ·tāwin his placeH8478

√ tachath — the bottom (as depressed)Prepositionthird person masculine singular

tachath: the bottom, as depressed; in place of The succession preposition. Read against v. 37, the last word of the unit is grimly exact: the storm the LORD began to send in Jotham's days will break on the man who now stands in his place.

Literal — word-for-word from the original

And-he-lay-down, Jotham, with his-fathers, and-he-was-buried with his-fathers in-city-of David his-father; and-he-reigned, Ahaz his-son, in-his-place.

Where the English smooths the original

וַיִּשְׁכַּ֤ב וַיִּשְׁכַּב (way·yiš·kaḇ, H7901 shâkab, Qal consecutive imperfect) is "he lay down." The brief's lexicon gives the root's range as lying down "for rest, sexual connection, decease or any other purpose." English "rested with his fathers" already interprets; the Hebrew simply puts the king in the posture of sleep and lets the euphemism do its own work. Kings never says a good Davidic king died; it says he lay down.
וַיִּקָּבֵר֙ וַיִּקָּבֵר (way·yiq·qā·ḇêr, H6912 qâbar, Nifal consecutive imperfect) is genuinely passive, "and he was buried," in deliberate contrast to the active Qal of çûwr in v. 35, where English wrongly supplied a passive. Here the burial has no named agent because it is the act of the people upon their king, the last thing done to him rather than by him.
עִם־אֲבֹתָ֔יו עִם־אֲבֹתָיו (‘im-’ă·ḇō·ṯāw, H5973 plus H1) stands twice, at indices 2 to 3 and 5 to 6. BSB renders the second "with them" to avoid the repetition. The Hebrew repeats "with his fathers" verbatim: once for the lying down and once for the burying. The doubled phrase is the dynasty closing over him.
תַּחְתָּֽיו תַּחְתָּיו (taḥ·tāw, H8478 tachath, "the bottom, as depressed," with third masculine singular suffix) is "underneath him," idiomatically "in his place." The succession formula is spatial: the new king stands where the old one stood. It is the unit's last word, and the name immediately before it is Ahaz.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. A reign dated to a usurper — 15:32-33

The unit opens by binding Judah's clock to Israel's: בִּשְׁנַת שְׁתַּיִם לְפֶקַח, "in year of two, to Pekah." Gill works the arithmetic plainly: Pekah began in Uzziah's fifty-second and last year, "Uzziah reigned full fifty two, and then Jotham succeeded." K&D runs the same sum forward and concludes that Jotham's sixteen years "came to a close in the seventeenth year of Pekah's reign." The Pulpit Commentary adds the complication that makes the chronology work at all: Azariah died in Pekah's second year and Jotham "became actual king," but his joint reign "commenced very much earlier," so his sole reign was short. JFB states the same distinction in four words, "that is, alone," and Poole in his own, "properly and alone." ⚙ Note what none of them can produce: the text itself never says regency. The harmonization is real, it is old, and it is inference from 2 Kings 15:5. Barnes reads the structural function instead, observing that "the writer here resumes the history of Judah" before turning back to finish Israel in chapter 17. Benson, for his part, admits an unresolved puzzle: why Azariah throughout the chapter and Uzziah here, he says, "no account can be given." The queen mother notice then fixes a woman in the record with the rarest word in the unit, יְרוּשָׁא, Jerusha, which the Verifier finds in exactly two verses of the canon. Gill passes on Lightfoot's guess that her father Zadok was high priest; Gill marks it as a guess, and so do we.

ii. The straight thing, and the lean word that follows it — 15:34-35

Verse 34 gives the formula: he did הַיָּשָׁר, the straight, in the eyes of YHWH, כְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר, according to the whole of what his father did. The totality is the problem, and the commentators split over it. Gill relays Jarchi's report that among all the kings of Judah before him, even the best, some sin was found, but "in Jotham there was nothing scandalous and reproachful," and cites Josephus's very high character reference. Pulpit prints Josephus at length. Geneva will have none of it, glossing the comparison as a limitation: he shows "that his uprightness was not such, but that he had many great faults." Ellicott and Cambridge take the historiographical route: the Chronicler qualified the statement because Uzziah's trespass into the sanctuary needed excepting, and Cambridge notes acutely that since "this sin of Uzziah had not been recorded by the compiler of Kings, it is natural that he should not allude to it in the notice of Jotham." Barnes says it directly: Jotham imitated his father in all respects excepting the priestly usurpation. ⚙ Then comes רַק, whose root the lexicon calls "leanness." The high places לֹא סָרוּ, did not turn aside, in the active voice, with the shrines themselves as subject. The people go on in two Piel participles, sacrificing and burning incense, held open by עוֹד; Gill observes they could not be broken of it "by prophets or kings." Against that, one emphatic pronoun: הוּא, "He it was who built," as Ellicott insists on translating. What he built is disputed. Barnes and Cambridge place the upper gate on the north and Barnes reads its fortification as fear of attack from that quarter; JFB and Poole say it is a court gate, probably toward the palace; Ellicott reports Thenius taking "higher" as rank. Cambridge is the most careful: by build "is only meant ‘restore’ or ‘beautify’. The gate existed before." Matthew Henry draws the pastoral conclusion the whole tradition remembers: if magistrates cannot do all they would against vice, let them do the more to "support and advance piety and virtue."

iii. The overhanging remainder, and the breach that opens — 15:36-38

Verse 36 concedes its own incompleteness. יֶתֶר is, by the lexicon, "an overhanging": what spills past the edge of this book. Ellicott fills it from 2 Chronicles 27, where Jotham built towns, castles and towers of refuge and "exacted from that nation a heavy tribute three years running," adding that even Ewald and Thenius admitted that narrative's historical value; Pulpit names the Ammonite war "the principal event of Jotham's reign"; Cambridge quotes the Chronicler's verdict, that Jotham became mighty because he prepared his ways before the LORD. Gill is careful to distinguish the lost royal annal from the canonical Chronicles. Then v. 37, where the grammar turns: YHWH is the subject, הֵחֵל (Hiphil of a root the lexicon derives from boring or piercing) the verb, and Rezin and Pekah the objects sent. Benson: wicked men are "the sword, the rod in God's hand." On timing the sources genuinely disagree. Poole and Benson put it toward the end of Jotham's reign; K&D argues from the verse's very position that the raids began in his closing years, so that the allies stood before Jerusalem at the start of Ahaz's reign; Gill holds that nothing came to pass in Jotham's life at all. Geneva simply says "After the death of Jotham" and leaps to the 120,000 slain of 2 Chronicles 28:6, which belongs to Ahaz. Pulpit dates Rezin from the Assyrian records, tribute about 743 BC and revolt about 734 BC, and Barnes explains the alliance's aim: to replace the house of David with a certain Ben-Tabeal of Isaiah 7:6. Cambridge alone lifts his eyes: though He began to send enemies, the LORD "was thinking upon mercy," and spoke through Isaiah of the sending of His Son. Then the formula closes: Jotham lay down, was buried (Nifal, passive) with his fathers in the city of David his father, and Ahaz reigned תַּחְתָּיו, underneath him, in his place. Benson counts the years from v. 33 and finds him dead at about forty-one, "too great a blessing to be continued long to such an unworthy people." K&D ends with the only word that holds the unit together: "it was otherwise decreed in the counsels of the Lord."

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ This is the tool's own fallible reading, offered to be tested by the text. Two elevations govern this unit, and the brief's own lexicon gives them the same gloss. הַבָּמוֹת (bâmâh, H1116) is "an elevation." הָעֶלְיוֹן (ʻelyôwn, H5945) is "an elevation." One elevation would not turn aside; the other, Jotham raised. That is the whole shape of a good reign under the old covenant: a king can build at the gate of the house, and cannot change what happens on the hills. Notice how carefully the Hebrew distributes agency. In v. 35 the verb is active and the shrines are its subject: they did not turn aside. No agent is blamed in the clause; the failure is a fact of the landscape and of the people's hands, two Piel participles that never stop. In v. 37 the verb is active again and the subject is YHWH: He began, He sent. Between those two actives sits one emphatic pronoun, הוּא, and one perfect verb, בָּנָה, which Cambridge rightly reduces to restoring or beautifying a gate that already stood. That is the sum of what a righteous king could actually do, and this book does not despise it. Henry is right that a magistrate who cannot pull down the high places of sin should still build the high gate of God's house.

⚙ But the unit will not let the reader rest in the gate. Verse 34 measures Jotham by his father; v. 38 lays him with his fathers and hands everything to a son. The word bên runs through the unit three ways, as age, as descent, and as succession, and the last of them names Ahaz. The kingdom's safety was never in the builder. It was in the Sender, and the Sender had already begun to bore the breach. Geneva's severity and Gill's praise can both stand here, because the text is not finally rendering a verdict on Jotham's soul; it is showing that even an unblemished reign leaves the high places standing and dies at forty-one, and that the only relief for that is not a better king in the same line but the mercy Cambridge saw glinting through the chastisement. Under Sola Scriptura, that is as far as this unit itself goes; Isaiah 7 is where the promise is spoken, and this chapter only opens the door to it.

⚙ Pullquote below, offered as commentary and not as Scripture.

Jotham built up one elevation and could not bring down the other: not a verse, a reading.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The parallel record: Jerusha, a name in only two verses verbal / quotation: confirmed

2 Chronicles 27:1 carries the same accession notice, the same sixteen years, and the same queen mother. The Verifier's basis is decisive here in a way that shared common vocabulary never is: יְרוּשָׁא (Yᵉrûwshâʼ, H3388) occurs in exactly two verses of the whole Hebrew canon, this one and that one. Alongside it stand H3147 Yôwthâm and H4427 mâlak. Ellicott opens his note by directing the reader to 2 Chronicles 27, and Cambridge, K&D and Pulpit all treat the Chronicler as the supplement that fills out what Kings compresses. ⚙ The relationship runs in both directions: Chronicles adds the temple exception and the Ammonite war, while Kings adds v. 37, which Chronicles does not have.

2 Chronicles 27:1

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H3388 Yᵉrûwshâʼ (in 2 vv, effectively unique to this pair), H3147 Yôwthâm (in 24 vv), H4427 mâlak (in 284 vv). The hapax-level rarity of the queen mother's name establishes a genuine verbal identity of record, not merely a shared topic.

Rezin and Remaliah's son: the alliance this verse opens and Isaiah names structural / thematic: confirmed

Verse 37 is the first notice of the coalition that Isaiah 7:1 dates and describes: Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah going up against Jerusalem. The Verifier records shared lexemes H7425 Rᵉmalyâhûw (13 verses), H6492 Peqach (11 verses) and H5818 ʻUzzîyâh (26 verses); Isaiah 7:4 and Isaiah 8:6 add H7526 Rᵉtsîyn and H758 ʼĂrâm. Cambridge draws the line explicitly, noting that in Isaiah 7 the two kings mean to set up "the son of Tabeel," and Barnes explains why: they distrusted the house of David and wanted a crown they could rely on. Pulpit adds the Assyrian evidence, Rezin paying heavy tribute about 743 BC and in revolt about 734 BC. ⚙ Kings and Isaiah are narrating one crisis from two desks.

Isaiah 7:1 · Isaiah 7:4 · Isaiah 8:6

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H7425 Rᵉmalyâhûw (in 13 vv), H6492 Peqach (in 11 vv), H7526 Rᵉtsîyn (in 11 vv), H758 ʼĂrâm (in 128 vv). Rare proper names shared across a single historical episode: a real verbal overlap, but no quotation in either direction, so the tier is held at structural.

Pekah's name as Judah's calendar: the frame of 2 Kings 15 structural / thematic: confirmed

The unit is bracketed by the same man at both ends. Pekah's coup (2 Kings 15:25), his accession in Uzziah's last year (15:27), the Assyrian deportation under Tiglath-pileser (15:29), and his own death at Hoshea's hand (15:30) all share the rare pair H6492 Peqach and H7425 Rᵉmalyâhûw with vv. 32 and 37 here, and 2 Kings 16:1 carries them forward into Ahaz's reign with H3147 Yôwthâm. ⚙ The editorial effect is deliberate: Judah's one clean reign is dated, framed and finally invaded by the north's bloodiest usurper, and the reader is never allowed to read Jerusalem without Samaria in view.

2 Kings 15:25 · 2 Kings 15:27 · 2 Kings 15:30 · 2 Kings 16:1 · 2 Kings 16:5

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H6492 Peqach (in 11 vv) and H7425 Rᵉmalyâhûw (in 13 vv) across all five references, with H4427 mâlak (in 284 vv) and H3147 Yôwthâm (in 24 vv). Shared rare naming within one continuous narrative frame; no citation is claimed.

Uzziah and Jotham as the prophets' dateline structural / thematic: confirmed

Isaiah 1:1 and Hosea 1:1 both open by dating their prophecies to the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. The Verifier records the shared lexemes H5818 ʻUzzîyâh (26 verses) and H3147 Yôwthâm (24 verses) for each. ⚙ The overlap is not a quotation but a shared calendar: the reigns that Kings narrates from the outside are the reigns that Isaiah and Hosea preached from the inside. Read together, the silence of this unit becomes loud. Kings tells us Jotham built a gate; Isaiah and Hosea tell us what was being said in the streets while he built it.

Isaiah 1:1 · Hosea 1:1 · 2 Chronicles 26:21 · 2 Chronicles 26:23

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H5818 ʻUzzîyâh (in 26 vv) and H3147 Yôwthâm (in 24 vv) in each reference. A shared regnal dateline, which is a real lexical link but explicitly not a quotation.

Jotham in the genealogy of the Messiah structural / thematic: confirmed

Matthew's genealogy of Jesus runs Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, the same four names and the same order as the datelines of Isaiah 1:1 and Hosea 1:1 and the succession of vv. 32, 34 and 38 here. ⚙ This is a Greek text naming Hebrew kings, so no shared Strong's number is possible and no verbal tier can honestly be claimed: the Verifier's candidate list for this unit contains only Hebrew references, and this link is the tool's own, not machine-computed. What it does establish is that the line whose crown Rezin and Pekah plotted to hand to the son of Tabeel (Isaiah 7:6, as Barnes notes) is the line Matthew traces to Christ. The plot named in v. 37 was, whatever its authors intended, an attack on a genealogy.

Matthew 1:9 · Isaiah 7:6

basis: Cross-Testament (Greek to Hebrew), so shared Strong's lexemes are impossible by definition and no verbal tier applies. Basis is the identical royal succession Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, which is explicit in both texts. Not Verifier-computed: this pairing is the tool's own and should be checked by the reader.

Geneva's 120,000: a number borrowed from the next reign flagged: verify source

Geneva's marginal note on v. 37 identifies Pekah as the one "Who in one day slew 120,000 of Judah's fighting men 2Ch 28:6, because they had forsaken the true God." The Verifier does connect 2 Chronicles 28:6 to this unit by shared lexemes H7425 and H6492. ⚙ But the slaughter belongs to the reign of Ahaz, not Jotham, and Chronicles gives its cause as Judah's forsaking of the LORD God of their fathers. Applied to v. 37 without that note, Geneva's gloss reads as though the massacre happened in Jotham's days, which no source in this brief claims. The link is real; the chronology in the gloss needs the correction, and that is why it is flagged rather than simply confirmed.

2 Chronicles 28:6

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes H7425 Rᵉmalyâhûw (in 13 vv), H6492 Peqach (in 11 vv), H6242 ʻesrîym (in 281 vv). The lexical link is sound, but the commentary attaching it to this verse (Geneva) imports an event from the reign of Ahaz into the days of Jotham; readers should verify the context in 2 Chronicles 28 before using it.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

The breach that opens here, and the sign given in it ancient/widely-held

⚙ The single theological claim of this unit is in v. 37: יְהוָה הֵחֵל, the LORD began, Hiphil of a root the lexicon derives from boring or piercing. God opens the breach. Cambridge, reading the same verse, writes that though He began to send enemies upon Judah, the LORD "was thinking upon mercy, and spake by the mouth of the prophet concerning that greatest mercy, the sending of His Son," and names the Immanuel oracle as the answer given inside the crisis. Isaiah 7 places Rezin and Pekah's advance as the exact occasion of that sign, and Matthew applies it to the birth of Jesus. ⚙ The structure is worth naming plainly: the sending of enemies and the sending of the Son are the same verb of commissioning in the same history. The chastisement is not the alternative to the promise; it is the setting in which the promise is spoken. This is the standard reading of the Immanuel passage in the Christian tradition and is stated here by Cambridge.

Isaiah 7:14 · Matthew 1:22-23

The crown they could not move ancient/widely-held

⚙ Barnes explains the strategy behind v. 37: Pekah and Rezin distrusted the house of David and "formed the design of transferring the Jewish crown to a certain Ben-Tabeal," a man of their own choosing (Isaiah 7:6). Cambridge says the same, that they "were minded to set up a king in Judah of their own choosing." The plot failed, and the failure is the point. The line runs on through the burial formula of v. 38: Jotham is laid in the city of David his father, and his son reigns תַּחְתָּיו, in his place. K&D closes the whole account with the reason: "it was otherwise decreed in the counsels of the Lord." ⚙ Luke names what that decree was protecting, the throne of David given to the son of Mary, a kingdom of which there shall be no end. The house that two kings tried to depose in the eighth century BC is the house the angel names in the first.

Isaiah 7:6 · Luke 1:32-33 · 2 Samuel 7:16

The builder at the gate and the high places he could not remove novel

⚙ This reading is the tool's own and is offered as novel, not as tradition. Jotham is the best that this book's evaluative formula can produce: straight in the LORD's eyes, unrebuked, a builder at the gate of the house. And the verse that praises him also records the limit of his office: הַבָּמוֹת לֹא סָרוּ, the high places did not turn aside, an active verb with the shrines as its own subject. No Judean king in this book cleanses the people's worship; the most a king does is build, fortify, restore. Hebrews sets the contrast structurally: the priests of that order stood daily offering sacrifices that could never take away sins, while one offering perfected forever those who are sanctified. ⚙ The link is mine, not a shared vocabulary, and the writer of Hebrews is arguing about the Levitical priesthood rather than about Jotham. But the shape rhymes exactly: an institution that could adorn the gate and not change the hills, and a priest-king whose work reaches what the builder's could not.

Hebrews 10:11-14 · 2 Kings 18:4

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
Geneva Study Bible, Marginal Notes (1599)
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1860s)
Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

Text. The Hebrew consonantal text of these seven verses raises no significant variant noted in the sources gathered here. The interlinear, parse data and Strong's numbers are the Berean apparatus as supplied in the brief; the English base text is the BSB.

Chronology is the unit's open problem. The sources do not agree and the text does not settle them. Pulpit, JFB and Poole distinguish Jotham's regency (from Uzziah's leprosy, 2 Kings 15:5) from his sole reign, and Pulpit reads the sixteen years of v. 33 as running from the regency; K&D reads them as sole years closing in Pekah's seventeenth (2 Kings 16:1). Nothing in vv. 32 to 33 mentions a regency. The reader should know that every harmonization offered above is inference.

Verse 37's timing is likewise disputed by the very commentators quoted. Poole and Benson: toward the end of Jotham's reign. K&D: the raids began in his closing years, from the verse's editorial position. Gill: design and preparation only, with nothing coming to pass until Ahaz. Geneva: "After the death of Jotham." These are flatly incompatible; we have recorded the disagreement rather than picking a winner.

What comes from Chronicles and Josephus, not from Kings. The Ammonite war and tribute, the wall of Ophel, the cities and towers, and the note that Jotham did not enter the temple are all 2 Chronicles 27, supplied here by Ellicott, Cambridge, Pulpit and K&D. The high character of Jotham is Josephus, relayed by Gill and printed at length by Pulpit. The claim that Zadok was high priest is Lightfoot by way of Gill, a conjecture. The identification of the upper gate with the later gate of Nicanor is Gill citing rabbinic sources. None of this is in the seven verses.

The upper gate is genuinely unidentified. North side (Barnes, Cambridge, K&D); a court gate toward the palace (JFB, Poole); "higher" meaning rank rather than position (Thenius, reported by Ellicott). Barnes's further inference, that fortifying it shows fear of attack from the north, is plausible given v. 37 but is not stated by the text.

Assyriology. The Rezin and Ahaz identifications from the Assyrian records (Pulpit's tribute and revolt dates, the spelling Raçôn proposed by Ellicott, the form "Yahu-khazi") are nineteenth-century readings of the inscriptions and have not been re-verified here.

⚙ marks machine synthesis. Every literal rendering, divergence, word note, movement, thread and Christ-reading above is fallible and offered to be tested. The Matthew 1:9 and Hebrews 10 links are the tool's own and are not Verifier-computed; the Hebrews reading is marked novel. The observation that H1116 bâmâh and H5945 ʻelyôwn carry the same lexicon gloss ("an elevation") is drawn from the brief's own lexicon entries and is offered as a reading, not as an etymological claim about the two roots.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)